LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
By JAMIE ELLIN FORBES “Artists for Peace and the Environment” was intially exhibited as a collection in the summer of ’99 in Rome, NY at the 30th anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Festival. Artists were invited to participate in this exhibit, by me as curator, with the support and agreement of Michael Lang (Woodstock Ventures) in support of Robert Kennedy Jr.’s, work with the Water Keeper Alliance. Works were displayed under a tent until the disruption of fire and rampaging occurred. I literally packed up the tent and left in the midst of chaos pre-dawn on a very hot Sunday morning. Calls for peace were not significant that year, peace accords and been signed for Bosnia. The luster of environmental causes was waning somewhat as the glamor of the rally to save the Amazon rain forest had died out. The Columbine High School massacre lent a picture of an emerging profile of youth violence in America. Youthful violence dominated Woodstock in ’99. Artists for Peace and the Environment got lost in the shuffle of the disorder that surrounded this, the third Woodstock anniversary event. Most folks having anything to do with that event distanced themselves right away from the festivals’ violence. Some people—like me—hung on to the concept of Love, Peace and Rock and Roll. Peace and the Environment never seemed like a bad idea which can go out of style. It was timeless. Still, with the help and support of many, this collection of 85 large paintings on 4’ x 8’ canvases caught the rising tide of warmth, peace, love and rock and roll of the original “Woodstock Nation” and all of the hallmark signature anthems that were never associated with the ’99 theme — “Not Your Parents Woodstock.” Some how “Peace & Love” got lost in the shuffle. Having committed myself to these works and the artists, I was able to show the images in several national and international events from ’99-2006. Dieter Schneider of Nuremberg, Germany was a staunch supporter of the Woodstock Nation and hosted the canvases into Berlin, Nuremberg and Munich through 2006. In New York City, we held a big party on the Intrepid Museum with the aid of Mary Asta. The canvases were exhibited at the Nassau Museum in Roslyn Harbor with Graham Nash flying in to sing a few tunes. Bobby Kennedy Jr., as a supporter and participating artist, displayed selected works at River Keeper 8 • Fine Art Magazine • Fall 2009
events. Harry Wahab of the Stendhal Gallery was kind enough to host an event in 2,000 and Victor Forbes and myself exhibited these works at the Blue Poodle Gallery in 2004. The collection can be seen in it’s entirety at www. fineartmagazine.com. So why take a look at this collection now? Because the theme is more relevant than ever and the art works are great. Michelle Esrick has become an acclaimed film producer; Ron English a well noted politically active and collectable painter; Wavy Gravy, a cultural icon; Tico Torres, drummer of Bon Jovi and serious painter, contributed a work, as did Lorraine Bracco of the Sopranos. These are just a fraction of the artists involved. Peace and the environment are more important than ever and the time has come for these works to stand alone as a viable and important artistic statement related to today’s urgent cries for social change. There are no more pressing issues than peace and the environment. The war we wage as the US since 2001 is bankrupting our system. The environmental changes we see are real and we are on the precipice of not being able to stop a climatic shift, which will make war seem remote as a problem. Why is peace important as a principle? It matters little if there is a war taking place in Vietnam, Bosnia, or Iraq. People are slaughtered every day in fighting. Children, civilians, soldiers. Our loved ones and theirs senselessly die every day. So peace is a good idea, yes? See summer of Love, Woodstock ’99 on the net. The Sudan had the largest migration due to drought and war of any refugee nation until it was replaced by the Afghan refugee migration into Pakistan this last year due to war. War and drought continue to plague the planet. Why the environment? It is because fires burn in the western part of the United States, no longer as a phenomena of the Santa Anna Winds, known within the region as seasonally due in November. Brush fires occur for more than half the year now. The devastation has affected the resilience of the economy of California, which until the recent fiscal debacle was the fifth largest in the world. California’s main source of irrigation water is expected to go dry this year for most of its growers due to drought, idling at least 60,000 workers and up to 1 million acres of farmland, federal officials and experts said. This bread basket feeds the US. Dust turns the sky of Sydney, Australia red, due to the largest dust bowl recorded in
PHOTO BY JAMIE ELLIN FORBES
“Artists For Peace and the Environment”
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Ron English at RiverKeeper Alliance picnic in 2000. Both had images on view along with other works from the Artists For Peace and the Environment Woodstock ’99 collection.
the region ever. The cause? Prolonged regional drought. The Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network also gave the following statistics: land species have declined by 25%, marine life by 28% and freshwater species by 29%. The rhythm of our inter-relatedness as a species is the music we follow when we are not hearing sound. Every time one species is eliminated from the tree of life, our internal sound diminishes. The musical chord is changed forever. Like a guitar string snapping, a richness is lost. The pollution and lack of our natural resources, land and water are now major general health and population concerns for all communities in all cultures. People go to war for lack of land, water, food and natural resources which sustain life and cultures. Between multiple wars, diminishing natural resources and environmental concerns, we are now forever propitiating the cycles of lack. The “Artists for Peace and the Environment” used their visual voices to communicate social activism. The work of graffiti artist Anthony Ausgang, sculptor/painters Steve Zaluski, and Bob Wade, painter/musicians known and unknown dialogue the importance of the peace, love, rock and roll and Mother Earth. Their icons of image as language are seen throughout the collection as fluid representive concepts accenting peace and the enviornment. Through their images, the artists bridge and forge new forms of descriptive metaphor. The now famous peace sign, the slogans of the “Woodstock Nation” used in art for 40 years carry over the message—“Artists for Peace and the Environment” go hand in hand with activating social change. Visit fineartmagazine. com to see the entire collection.